Constraining visible neutrino decay at KamLAND and JUNO

Abstract

AbstractWe study visible neutrino decay at the reactor neutrino experiments KamLAND and, JUNO. Assuming the Majoron model of neutrino decay, we obtain constraints on the couplings between Majoron and neutrino as well as on the lifetime/mass of the most massive neutrino state i.e., $$\tau _{3} / m_{3}$$ τ 3 / m 3 or $$\tau _{2} / m_{2}$$ τ 2 / m 2 , respectively, for the normal or the inverted mass orderings. We obtain the constraints on the lifetime $$\tau _{2} / m_{2} \ge 1.4 \times 10^{-9}~{\mathrm{s/eV}}$$ τ 2 / m 2 ≥ 1.4 × 10 - 9 s / eV in the inverted mass ordering for both KamLAND and JUNO at 90% CL. In the normal ordering in which the bound can be obtained for JUNO only, the constraint is milder than the inverted ordering case, $$\tau _{3} / m_{3} \ge 1.0 \times 10^{-10}$$ τ 3 / m 3 ≥ 1.0 × 10 - 10  s/eV at 90% CL. We find that the dependence of lightest neutrino mass ($$=m_{{{\mathrm{lightest}}}}$$ = m lightest ), $$m_1 (m_3)$$ m 1 ( m 3 ) for the normal (inverted) mass ordering, on the constraints for the different types of couplings (scalar or pseudo-scalar) is rather strong, but the $$m_{{{\mathrm{lightest}}}}$$ m lightest dependence on the lifetime/mass bound is only modest.